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News and Events

Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2010

Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 2 2009

There were 18,844 births registered in the second quarter of 2009, a decrease of just over 1% in the number of birthsregistered in the corresponding quarter of 2008. The number of births registered in quarter 2 2009 remains high, the fourthhighest number recorded in a quarter in recent years.

These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office’s Vital Statistics Second Quarter report.

Births in the second quarter of 2009 represented an annual birth rate of 16.9 per 1,000 population. The rate for thecorresponding quarter of 2008 was 17.2 per 1,000 population and 14.6 per 1,000 population in quarter 2 2000. In quarter 22009, Fingal recorded the highest birth rate of 22.1 per 1,000 population, while County Monaghan recorded the lowestbirth rate of 13.2 per 1,000 population.

Of the 18,844 births, there were 6,114 births registered as outside marriage. This accounted for 32.4% of all births. Ofthese, 3,802 births were to unmarried parents with the same address, 20% of all births. The highest percentage of birthsoutside marriage occurred in Limerick city at 53%, while the lowest percentage occurred in County Leitrim at 19%.

Births to first time mothers (7,858) accounted for 42% of all births and second time mothers (6,011) accounted for a further32% of births. The average age of mothers was 31.3 years. Dun Laoighaire Rathdown recorded the highest average ageof mothers at 33.0 years, while Limerick city recorded the lowest average age of mothers, 29.3 years. The average age ofmothers having their first child was 29.1 years.

There were 7,020 deaths registered in quarter 2 2009, a decrease of over 7% in the number of deaths registered in thesecond quarter of 2008. The quarter 2 2009 total represents a death rate of 6.3 per 1,000 population. This compares with6.8 per 1,000 population in 2008 and 8.1 per 1,000 population in 2000.

For those aged 65 and over, the annual death rate was 43.3 per 1,000 population (5,356 deaths). This compares with arate of 48.6 per 1,000 population for the corresponding quarter of 2008, an improvement of almost 11%. The improvementin this rate since 2000 was 23%.

There were 52 infant deaths registered in quarter 2 2009 giving an infant mortality rate of 2.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.The corresponding rate in quarter 2 2008 was 4.7 per 1,000 live births and was 5.6 per 1,000 live births in 2000. The numberof neonatal deaths (deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks) in quarter 2 2009 was 41, 2.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Over one third (34%) of all deaths in the quarter were attributed to circulatory disease (2,374), while 29% were attributed tomalignant neoplasms (2,024), 13% to respiratory diseases (904) and 6% to external causes (441).